In this 25th episode, host Eric Y. Lapointe virtually heads back to Quebec to explore Canada's French-language production hub to talk about how this province punches well above its weight by leveraging their tight-budget productions and turn them into world-famous stories. For this conversation he sits down with three international sales executives: Mélanie Ratté of Zone 3, Kathleen Préfontaine of Aetios Productions and Barbara Vallant of Aroma TV / KOTV.
About our 3 guests...
MÉLANIE RATTÉ / ZONE 3:
With her passion for media communications, Mélanie Ratté lost no time in making a name for herself in the world of Quebec’s television production. From working initially as a writer at Coscient Productions, she moved to Zone3 in 2000 where she has been involved in content development since day one, being successively appointed Director of development in 2009, and Manager, Creation & Business Development in 2017. She demonstrated her outstanding ability for building relationships with industry players in Canada and around the world. As Senior Director, International Distribution & Business Development, she is now responsible for expanding Zone3’s international footprint.
KATHLEEN PRÉFONTAINE / AETIOS:
Kathleen has a BFA in Design Art from Concordia University and a Minor in Marketing Management from HEC Montréal. In 2006, she began her career in the television format distribution business at Distraction Formats as the Director of Marketing. She then migrated to various Quebec production companies (La Presse Télé, Attraction Média and Trio Orange) where she established the new distribution department. She has participated in the international sales of the shows: Les Parent (France, Greece, Israel, Poland, Russia and Air Transat), En direct de l’univers (France and Lebanon) & 30 Lives (Brazil, France). At Aetios, she manages all aspects of distribution and participates in the development of new series.
BARBARA VALLANT / AROMA TV / KOTV
Barbara is a Montreal native and following her studies at Concordia University, she left for Germany, where she has resided for over 15 years.
The bulk of her career has been focused on international TV distribution, with her first steps selling THE WORLD LIVE, a 90-second LIVE feed around the world from the unmanned camera network, earthTV. She effectively launched this previously unheard of, difficult -to-place segment on international news channels, including CNN, CBC, FRANCE 2, LCI (TF1), TRAVEL CHANNEL, just to name a few. This eventually brought her path towards TV formats, where in 2009, she became a TV sales agent and founded her one-woman company, AROMA-TV.